Utah State takes on top-seeded Colorado State
When the final buzzer sounded in Utah State’s 69-66 win over New Mexico on Monday, the Aggies had less than 24 hours to prepare for their next game — against the conference’s No. 1 seed in Colorado State no less.
“Well, we played them twice. We know them. They know us,” said senior guard Jennifer Schlott. “(We’ll) just watch film. Just try and focus up really. We know what we have to do. They know what they have to do.”
The Aggies fell to Rams on two occasions this season, by 10 in Fort Collins and 25 in Logan.
“We have to play the best game of the year tomorrow. We have 22 hours to rest up, prepare, get after them,” said USU head coach Jerry Finkbeiner. “Colorado State, they’re the best team in the conference. They beat us easily both games. We’re just going to have to play really well. Jen is going to have to get hers, Steph is going to have to get hers, Mak is going to have to get more than hers.”
Schlott led all scorers against New Mexico in the with 29 points. Makenlee Williams also made her presence felt as well as Stephanie Bairstow, who was second on the team in scoring with 16 points.
“She hit her stride six games ago. We played good ball the last six games, seven tonight,” Finkbeiner said about Bairstow. “I think you’ll see this is the Stephanie Bairstow of the future.”
Colorado State had a bye in Monday’s action and will be well rested to take on the Aggies in an attempt to defeat them for a third time this season. Finkbeiner said that they will not approach the game any differently than a normal game.
“We’re going to approach it the same as New Mexico today. We want to go up and down, score points, run, gun and have fun. Don’t count us out,” Finkbeiner said. “But at the same time we’re realistic, we have to play our best game of the year tomorrow.”
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